KEY POINTS:
The aunt of Cru Kahui told today how she "freaked out" when she saw her baby nephew lifeless and turning purple and shook him to try to get "a rise" out of him.
Mona Kahui, 19, was giving evidence at a depositions hearing in Manukau District Court for her brother Chris Kahui who is accused of murdering Cru and his twin brother Chris.
The three-month-old boys died in Auckland's Starship Hospital on June 18, last year from head injuries and broken bones allegedly inflicted by their father.
Mona Kahui lived with the accused and his partner Macsyna King at the time the Crown alleges the twins were injured.
Ms Kahui told the court that on a Monday in June last year she was just about to go out when the accused asked her to give baby Cru a cuddle to say goodbye.
She said she picked him up, went down to give him a kiss, then noticed the baby's lips were turning purple. Ms Kahui she licked her fingers and put them under Cru's nose to try to feel any breath.
"His face started going pale and his eyes were rolling back," an upset Ms Kahui told the court.
When she told her brother that Cru was not breathing, he told her it had happened before and to rub the baby on his back.
She said Banjo Kahui, the twins' grandfather, who had come into the room, then told Kahui there was something wrong with the baby.
She said Kahui put his other son back in his cot, looked at Cru and began to perform CPR, while Ms Kahui ran to get her partner Stuart King.
Ms Kahui said she was not sure how hard she shook Cru, but "hard enough to try to arise him but I was freaked out at the time."
Once it appeared Cru's breathing had returned to normal Ms Kahui said she and her father decided to try to find the twins' mother Macsyna King and drove to two different houses looking for her.
Under cross-examination Ms Kahui said she did not call for an ambulance because it would have been faster to take one of the cars at the house.
They did not go to the hospital because Cru started breathing again, she said.
Ms Kahui said Ms King had told her a few weeks after the babies first came home from the hospital, one of the babies had stopped breathing before but had come right with a gentle shake, she said.
Kahui had appeared concerned and anxious as soon as he realised she was serious about Cru not breathing, she said.
'Dominating' partner
Ms Kahui earlier told the court her brother was "dominated" by his former partner Macsyna King.
She said the relationship between her brother and Ms King began to change after Kahui's mother became ill and began spending time in hospital.
The couple went through a "rough patch" around this time but were like any other couple and had an on-again off-again relationship, she said.
Ms King was the dominant person of the couple and she became frustrated at the amount of time Kahui was spending visiting his mother in hospital, Ms Kahui said.
She said she knew Ms King dominated Kahui by the way she talked to him and the way she snatched things from him.
She said during one family meeting, held to discuss how everyone was coping with running the house while Kahui's mother was in hospital, Ms King appeared upset.
Ms Kahui asked if she needed her help with the twins.
Ms King replied she wanted Kahui to help out more but that he was always tired from being at the hospital with his mother.
Ms King told Ms Kahui that it was "their stuff to sort" and "basically told me to back off".
Ms Kahui told the court that on Monday, June 12 last year she saw Ms King leave the house and sometime after that the twins were fed.
The court has been told the twins were killed either by a blow to their heads or by having their heads bashed against a solid object.
Their father was charged with their murder four months after they died.
The Crown's case is that the babies received their injuries while in the care of their father on the evening of Monday June 12 2006, when Ms King was out visiting her sister.
The depositions hearing to decide whether Chris Kahui should stand trial for the twins' murders continues tomorrow.
- NZPA
